Builders' Rubble And Soil Left After Work

What's happening?

Rubble left behind after building work raises a question people rarely ask before the work starts: whose waste is it? Waste produced by a contractor working at your home is generally that business's waste, and the full section 34 duty of care applies to them: they must transfer it only to an authorised person and keep the paperwork. Once they leave it on your drive and walk away, you are the one holding it. Then the material itself matters. Clean broken brick, concrete and tile is inert and dense. Plasterboard cannot be landfilled with biodegradable waste because gypsum generates hydrogen sulphide in those conditions, so it is separated. Subsoil is heavy enough to exceed a vehicle's payload while the container still looks half empty.

What usually causes it?

• A builder, kitchen fitter or bathroom installer finishing up and leaving the waste behind
• A DIY project: a wall taken out, a chimney breast removed, a bathroom stripped
• Foundations, footings or a soakaway dug out, producing dense spoil
• A patio, driveway or path broken up and lifted
• Plasterboard offcuts from a re-skim or a stud wall, which must be kept separate
• A skip filled and taken away before the job finished, leaving the remainder loose
• Old ceramic tiles, sanitaryware and cement-based debris mixed in with the rubble

Is it dangerous?

Treat a rubble heap with more care than it looks like it needs. Broken tile and glass cut through gloves, exposed nails and screws in timber and plasterboard cause puncture wounds, and cement dust and old plaster contain respirable crystalline silica: dry-sweeping a rubble pile is the classic way to breathe it. Wet it down instead. In a property built before 2000, there is also a real possibility that debris from a garage roof, soffit, textured ceiling coating or old flue includes asbestos-containing material, and that stops being a clearance job.

Can I fix it myself?

You can bag inert rubble in proper rubble sacks rather than bin bags, keep plasterboard in its own pile, and separate timber and metal so each has a route. You can wet dusty material down before moving it and take modest car loads to a tip that accepts DIY construction waste: note that many charge for it, because construction waste from a household is not always free. You should not break up anything you suspect contains asbestos, and you should not simply pay a stranger to make the heap disappear without checking who they are.

When should you call a rubbish and waste clearance specialist?

Call a clearance firm when there is more than a car boot's worth, when the material is mixed, or when the contractor has gone and is not coming back. If the waste was produced by a business working at your home, ask them to remove it first: their duty of care covers it. Where you are arranging removal yourself, check the carrier's registration on the Environment Agency public register and keep the transfer note.

What will the rubbish and waste clearance specialist actually do?

• Assess the material by weight rather than volume, since inert rubble hits payload limits quickly
• Segregate plasterboard, timber, metal and inert rubble so each goes to the right facility
• Hand-load and barrow out where a skip cannot be sited or the drive cannot be blocked
• Damp material down while loading to control silica-bearing dust
• Stop and advise on testing where material may contain asbestos, rather than loading it
• Provide a waste transfer note, and sweep and wash down the drive or path afterwards

Who fixes this

• Builders waste removal
• Man and van waste collection

Questions people ask

Sources & References

1. Environmental Protection Act 1990, section 34 (duty of care)
2. Highways Act 1980, section 139 (skips on the highway)
3. GOV.UK: Skip licence (England and Wales)
4. HSE: Asbestos